Worst Case Scenario
by bldude
Summary: The UNSC unwittingly unleashes hell upon themselves while they experiment with teleportation technology.  Rated T.  Please read, and review!
1. Hell Unleashed

_Author Note: Please note that while I've played a lot of Halo, I've never played Doom before, something I hope to correct sometime in the near future. If I make any grievous mistakes, feel free to point them out! Please review!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, Doom, or any copyrighted stuff in here. I do own any original characters, and this uber fantastic piece of fanfiction.**

* * *

**1314 Hours, February 20, 2560 (Military Calendar)\Delta Pavonis System, ****Vermögen****, Beta Labs**

Spartan-D095 Justin stared at the lifeless grey surface of the moon Vermögen through the reinforced glass of the Beta Lab observation lounge. Not that there was anything to see of course, there was nothing on this rock orbiting the UNSC research colony of Caladan, besides the facility named "Beta Labs". Justin was off duty, waiting for his next shift. There was nothing to do since the young Spartan had already gone through the meager entertainment library the facility had to offer, and besides exercise, which only filled up so much time in the day the only thing left was to stare out a window. For what seemed like the thousandth time, Justin cursed at being assigned to "protect" this facility. He understood that the research being done here could give the UNSC a huge advantage in the battlefield, but why did it have to be his team? Despite the end Human-Covenant war, there were still some Covenant forces at large. These were mainly Brutes, and any Prophets still alive, and they had constantly attacked human ships traveling between systems, impeding re-colonization efforts. They still believed in the "Great Journey", a path to salvation; actually a species ending super weapon, and caused trouble to no end. Fighting them was the reason Justin had became a Spartan super soldier, training since he was six years old to become one of humanity's protectors, not to baby sit some scientists.

Speaking of scientists, Justin heard there was going to be another test today, with new calculations that everyone believed was the correct set. In the five months Justin had been posted here, the scientists had run hundreds of the same test, each with a different set of calculations, to no avail. Why would they think this time would be different? He had pretty much gotten used to the whole process now.

Yellow lights started flashing throughout the facility, indicating the start of a test. Justin sighed, and left the lounge in search of the other off duty members of his team.

* * *

Dr. Jeremy Moses looked over the test chamber from the operations room, looking past the two dozen or so scurrying lesser scientists finishing calibrations on the teleportation device. His 2nd in command, Dr. Malcolm Kent however, was looking over a history of the project on a screen.

_UNSC Science Division Archives_

_Dr. Jeremy Moses PhD, ScD, QEnD May 1, __2555_

_During the successful rescue of the last remaining Spartan-II's and the Spartan-III's as well as Dr. Halsey and CPO Mendez from the slipspace bubble at what remains of Onyx on June 26, 2553 (See attached file) the recovery team also brought back a map of coordinates on locations throughout the galaxy. The only coordinate we discerned from the map lead us to Mars, specifically to previously unknown underground ruins identified as Forerunner. (See attached file) Our dig team unearthed details on a transportation device by teleportation, similar to the slipspace transport technology the Forerunners are known for. On January 4__th__ of 2555, the _ _Vermögen Research Lab began construction, on the 2__nd__ moon of the colony of Caladan. We will unlock the secret to teleportation and gain a technology as important as the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine is. I am proud to be the head scientist of this project._

_Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey MD, PhD, Civilian Consultant 409871 December 24__, __2555 _

_While everyone's preparing to celebrate that ancient holiday I barely recall, full of joy and thanks to a "fruitful" year of research, I have continued translating the Forerunner text from the ruins under New Mars City. There is a wealth of information down there, so much that I may not be able to translate it all within my lifetime, perhaps two lifetimes. However, one important detail that I've come across repeatedly is that the Forerunner inhabitants of Mars experienced a cataclysmic event of some sort. My request for additional funding has surprisingly been denied, it seems the conflict with the remaining Covenant elements is worse than what we're being told._

Malcolm recognized the next entry as his from years ago.

_Dr. Malcolm Kent MD, PhD, ScD August 30, 2557_

_After two years of frustrating tests that led to nowhere, we have found out that we've been going about this the wrong way. It seems that the Forerunner ruins on Mars were from a much earlier Forerunner era, the earliest we've seen. The teleportation device they used then was much simpler, albeit using a dimension we have no data on instead of slipspace. No wonder the math seemed off, as if the device was meant for a "lower" dimension. With this breakthrough, we've redoubled our efforts to build a working device._

_Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey MD, PhD, Civilian Consultant 409871 March 11 2559_

_I've finally made a breakthrough using data from the newly discovered section of the ruins. It's been difficult with only a skeleton staff of 18, and progress has been slow. Despite that, I've found some surprising and foreboding information. It appears that Mars was once a prosperous scientific research colony for the Forerunners, home to several billion if I'm reading this text correctly. There was some sort of catastrophic occurrence related to the development of a teleportation device, which led to the destruction of the colony and the loss of an untold amount of the population. I've informed the researchers at the __Vermögen facility of my discoveries, and while they found it "interesting", they brushed it off. It seems there is something terribly wrong with the teleportation technology, and I intend to find out what. (See attached files for complete translations of the hidden chamber in __**Mars Forerunner Ruins #3**__)_

That was the last of the entries. Contrary to what the venerable Dr. Halsey believed though, they had not brushed off her discoveries. The UNSC decided to take no chances in dealing with such complex technology. To this end, they stationed a small army in the research facility; among them a team of Delta Company Spartan-IIIs from last year's graduating class. In addition, a garrison base was hastily constructed on the only other moon orbiting Caladan, Wohlstand. With so much protection, Malcolm felt that they had covered all the angles and possible worse case scenarios.

On the chamber floor, a dozen UNSC marines as well as a pair of Spartan-III's in hulking MJOLNIR Mk. VI [B] Powered Assault Armor stood ready to take care of any possible problem…just like they had done hundreds of times in the last five months. It got so routine that they even hoped something, no matter how small would happen to make this day memorable.

At 13 years old, and 7ft 3in, Spartan-D030 Kevin was one of the tallest Spartans, no small feat. Complimenting him was the 11 year old Spartan-D293 Hilary, one of the smallest Spartans, at 5ft 5in. The pair stared at the Scientists working around a large gateway like device, going through the exact same motions they had done numerous times beforehand. Somehow, the scientists seemed excited, despite this being one of nearly a thousand tests done.

The facility's resident Smart A.I. "Tyche" started counting down to the activation of the device.

_"10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…Mark!"_

Bolts of electricity shot between the two "prongs" of the 15 ft high teleportation device, as energy gathered there. At this point, the most that could be expected would be a small explosion, or if they were unlucky, nothing at all. But for the first time ever, a grey portal-like opening was generated, as tall as the prongs themselves. Everyone in the room looked at it in shock. There was silence was a full ten seconds before wild cheers erupted.

In the operations room, the celebration was no less enthusiastic. To Malcolm's surprise, the normally silent Dr. Moses was shouting in jubilation. A tech was reading the data being generated, and Malcolm had to strain to hear him speak despite being so close to him.

"The wormhole is stable, and the destination wormhole has been confirmed, handshake signal has been successfully sent through. We've done it!" cried the tech.

The celebrations would have gone on longer if the AI Tyche hadn't interrupted.

"Power levels are fluctuating, scans show contacts _inside_ the wormhole."

The testing chamber became a flurry of activity as the celebrations died down. Scientists pored over the data generated and found that several contacts had indeed appeared on scans. Techs checked the equipment for any problems, and the operations room once again hushed into silence as the head scientist and his 2nd in command observed the scene. Tyche interrupted again.

"Multiple contacts approaching the wormhole access point at high speed, I strongly suggest turning the thing off for now."

Dr. Kent nodded to a tech awaiting confirmation.

"Do it."

The tech rapidly tapped in some commands, frowned, and then tapped them in again. The man turned back to Malcolm, nervousness evident on his face, and said.

"Sir, we've cut power to the device, but the wormhole's being maintained somehow, I don't know how."

Tyche interjected, "I believe that it is highly likely that whoever is on the other side is powering the wormhole, we should take precautions, as I'm reading dozens of contacts on the other side that'll be crossing any minute now."

Dr. Moses frowned deeply. "Inform command of the situation, and that we're going on red alert."

The base security head came forward from the back of the operations room, and spoke into a headset mic.

"Red alert, Red alert, this is not a drill, the test has hit a snag, and we have possible unknown hostiles vectors incoming, check your fire, but be ready, go!"

"Thank you Lieutenant Alberto, let's observe the situation…" replied Dr. Moses.

The scientists on the chamber floor backed away from the device as the twelve marines and two Spartans took up firing positions behind what little cover there was. Kevin took the safety off his MA5D assault rifle, and checked to see he had a full magazine of 64 rounds. Hilary hefted a M90 mk. III shotgun loaded with a dozen 8 gauge shells. They stood anxiously, waiting to see if what came through was hostile or not.

What came next was the biggest shock anyone had ever seen. Flying ghostly skulls poured out of the portal. Several marines opened fire out of shock, but the rounds merely passed through the skulls. Several of them went into pieces of equipment, but in particular, some went into marines and scientists. The effects were instantaneous, their skin turned stark white, regardless of previous skin pigmentation, and more horrifyingly, eyeballs exploded in a mist of blood and sclera. The turned marines immediately fired whatever weapon they were holding at their former comrades, and in one case, resorted to biting a marine. Cries of pain and shock came from various soldiers, and some returned fire. A sergeant tried to take control of the situation while removing a zombified marine from grappling a stunned private.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" He shouted, right before getting knocked down by a stray bullet. Fortunately, his ballistic armor stopped the shot.

"Sir, they're like zombies! They're biting for Christ's sake!" replied a marine busy spraying rounds at said zombies.

Screams from behind the disorganized line of marines drew their attention to a bloodbath. Half of the scientists that had taken cover were now zombies, controlled by demonic spirits, and were tearing apart the ones that escaped possession. The two Spartans put down the possessed scientists with pinpoint shots to their heads, the well known crucial way of taking down zombies.

* * *

Up in the operations room, a different battle was taking place. At the sight of the possessed humans, Dr. Moses had ran off, leaving Malcolm to cower behind the security chief, as the burly man fended off the half dozen techs turned zombies. Lt. Alberto calmly shot each zombie in the head, or as calmly as someone who was going through a sudden apocalypse could. All Dr. Kent could think was,

"My God, Halsey was right! We've unleashed a nightmare!"

Lt. Alberto reloaded his M6P PDWS Magnum sidearm, and turned to Dr. Kent

"Are you alright Doctor? I can't believe what's going on; it's almost like the Flood again."

Dr. Kent tried to calm his rapidly beating heart and think about what to do. What sounded like a raging firefight on the chamber floor wasn't helping his nerves one bit. After a moment of collecting himself, however, he managed to come up with a plan.

"Tyche, tell command what's happening immediately, and have the rest of the marines get here ASAP, we need to find some way to close that portal."

* * *

Justin linked up with the rest of his off duty teammates. There was Spartan-D133, Virgil, their CQC expert, handy with the M45 Tactical shotgun, and a M7 caseless submachine gun with a Misriah Armory Multi-purpose aiming reflex sight attached. The team scout, Spartan-171 Shiho stood next to Virgil, hands on her hips, her usual standing pose. Their explosives expert Spartan-D210 Christina came a second after Justin arrived.

"What's the situation?" Shiho asked.

"Looks like hostiles have come through the wormhole, some kind of flying ghost skull that turns people into zombies according to Tyche. Our guys are getting hit hard in the testing chamber, and we're going in to reinforce them." The team leader, Justin, explained.

Virgil shook his head, "Zombies? Flying skulls? This is unreal; I never saw this coming from a _milk run_ of an assignment."

Christina's posture expressed worry. "Kevin and Hilary are on duty right now, in there fighting, we should hurry, this feels sort of like the flood." She said.

During their training, the Spartan III's had received the best training available to prepare them for the possibility of facing the world consuming parasitic race known as the Flood. This enemy was the most serious humanity, and the galaxy as a whole had ever seen. Now, they were facing an enemy that was as terrifying and potentially threatening as well.

The four MJOLNIR clad super soldiers headed off toward the testing chamber. Not a minute had passed before the facilities' smart AI made another announcement, another bit of bad news.

"Warning, facility scanners have detected numerous energy spikes on every level, and every section, possible threat eminent."

A large orange circle with incomprehensible script in it suddenly appeared in the middle of the corridor, with an identical circle on the ceiling. A dozen ghostly skulls appeared, and flew into nearby com stations. Justin's com frequencies erupted with radio chatter from the various marine units in the facility.

"What the hell! Gonzales, heads up! Nguyen, watch your six!"

"What are these things!"

"Friendly fire, friendly fire!"

"Did his eyes just explode!"

"Open fire! They aren't human anymore!"

More requests for help, orders, and more incoherent voices filled the Spartan's radio, until he turned down the volume on that frequency. Things had turned from bad to worse. It seemed these things could appear anywhere now, unrestricted.

* * *

Tyche, his avatar appearing as a figure in flowing robes popped in on the holo projector. However, his avatar flickered, and disappeared, getting replaced by what looked like a bright orange pentagram. Other screens filled with weird, bright orange symbols, and some even turned a disturbing bloody crimson. His voice still came on over the speakers.

"Those skulls are somehow affecting the electronic equipment, corrupting the net pathways in the facility. I've lost control to several com stations and screens. More portals have appeared across the entirety of the facility, depositing more of these skulls. The marine forces are being besieged, their own allies being turned against them. I've already lost contact with over half of the squads out there."

Lt. Alberto looked shocked. There were 160 marine personnel assigned to this facility under his command. It seemed that over 80 of them had already been taken out.

"Thankfully, I've retained control of the automatic defense turrets, they have been activated, and are quite effective at taking down hostiles in the confined corridors." Tyche informed.

"We need reinforcements, pronto, can you contact Wohlstand base and tell them our situation?" Alberto asked.

"No, I cannot access the comm. array, you will need to travel down the corridor outside this room, left at the T junction, and 50 meters to the nearest comm. control room to operate the communications manually. There are four auto turrets defending the room, it is secure for the time being."

At that moment however, a dozen massive 10 feet high monsters came out of the portal. They were grey, very muscular, and heavy. Some of them created fireballs, and launched them at the last two surviving humans in the room, the Spartans. The duo returned fire while strafing around the fireballs, Kevin firing an assault rifle to little effect, and Hilary firing a portable M247H heavy machine gun. The new demons however, soaked up the rounds without too much trouble.

Lt. Alberto looked at the monstrosities in quiet horror. Things had just gotten that much worse, and Spartans or not, it didn't seem like they were making much of a dent against these things. There was nothing he could do however; he had to get Dr. Kent over to the communications array.

Turning to the equally horrified doctor, he shook him out of his disbelief.

"We have to go. NOW. We have to warn everyone else before it's too late." The lieutenant said.

Malcolm stared dumbly at the young, twenty something officer half his age, for a few seconds, before snapping out of it and nodding. With one last worried look at the struggling Spartans, the doctor followed the marine out into the dark corridor. The lights were off, some of them flickering intermittently, creating a suspenseful atmosphere. Lt. Alberto led the way with his pistol w/flashlight attachment activated, down the now apprehensive path. In the distance, muffled gunfire echoed along the way.

* * *

_This is just the beginning, and I hope I described the Doom related stuff accurately. In case I didn't describe them well enough, the dozen "monstrosities" at the end were Hell Knights. This is the last story I'll be writing concurrently with my other stories, until I finish some of them. How was the prologue? Please take the time to review, and possibly criticize any errors or problems I have. Thank you. _


	2. It gets worse

_A/N: Just enjoy the story. For easier comprehension, I'll write the monster names. Btw, thank you for the review(s)! By the way, I'm sort of making this story up as I go along, so feel free to input ideas! I may even use them, thanks!_

Radio and Thoughts: _Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt_

Speech: Blah Blah Blah

* * *

**1329 Hours, February 20, 2560 (Military Calendar)\Delta Pavonis System, ****Vermögen****, Beta Labs**

An orange pentagram appeared in the middle of the corridor, and a grey creature known as an Imp appeared in a bolt of lightning. Before it could so much as blink any of its ten eyes, it was blown away from Virgil's shotgun. The destroyed body of the imp turned to ash and disappeared.

"This one too, they can appear out of nowhere, and when they die, their bodies turn to dust. Not the zombies though, I guess it's different." The shotgun wielder observed.

The four members of Spartan Team Eta moved quickly through the blood soaked and bullet ridden corridors and halls of the Vermögen Beta Lab research facility, towards the central teleportation test chamber where this nightmare began at. Even as they approached it, two members of their team were fighting for their lives against a growing horde of hellish monsters, trying to stem the tide, and failing.

The flying ghostly skulls (Lost Souls) disrupted electronics, including internal communications, making radio contact more difficult. What sporadic radio chatter the team received didn't bode well.

_*Loud gunfire* "Fall back, fall back!"_

"_Fall back where? This is the fall back position!"_

But most of the chatter consisted of screams and intermittent gunfire. The Lost Souls possessed the majority of the base's personnel, increasing the number of hostiles while drastically reducing the survivor count. Team Eta came across occasional marine positions, which were often quickly overrun by hordes of turned researchers, or zombified marines retaining firearms proficiency. It was still unsure on why the lost souls possessed certain people, while entire squads were sometimes passed by when there was more than enough lost souls to take them all. So far, none of the lost souls had tried to possess a Spartan, despite that doing so would make it exponentially more difficult for the survivors, but eventually, it happened.

As Justin turned a corner, a Lost Soul flew straight towards him, faster than he could evade. Rather than getting possessed as he expected, the Lost Soul _deflected_ off the Spartan's personal energy shields, before disintegrating. The entire team paused to check their leader.

"Did you turn into a zombie?" Virgil asked, keeping his shotgun aimed at Justin.

"No, it bounced off my shields, looks like they can't get through them, now get that shotgun out of my face, we still have a ways to go." Justin testily replied.

The Spartan continued moving, his three teammates following with palpable relief.

* * *

Kevin fired his MA5D, with all his shots impacting the head of a Hell Knight. Despite all its raw strength, it's weakness still lay in its cranium, and the Hell Knight dropped, its brain perforated with 7.62mm plasma core rounds, ammunition designed to penetrate an armored target before detonating inside. Beside him, Hilary fired off the last rounds in her M247H machine gun, before dropping it and changing to a M7 smg. The duo waited as the last Hell Knight turned to ash, but nothing more came out of the still open portal.

Hilary turned to Kevin, "Think that's it?"

As soon as she said that, something new came out. It was even larger than a Hell Knight. Its bottom half was essentially a tank, but instead of a turret, it had a writhing human from the waist up connected to some machinery, and in addition, it also sported a very sharp claw, and something Kevin recognized with a gasp as a FRG-9000, a prototype portable plasma mortar capable of destroying scorpion tanks in two to three shots. But more shocking was the human cybernetically connected to the machinery. It was Dr. Jeremy Moses. (It's also a version of the Sabaoth, a much harder version.)

"Dr. Moses!" Hilary asked incredulously.

The former director of the project chuckled and spoke in a deep, almost _evil_ voice.

"Correct mortals, Hell has given me great power, immortality, and strength beyond even you Spartans."

Kevin's jaw dropped, although no one else could see it through his face plate.

"You have been irritating at most, but you will not stand in our way, our legion will reclaim what is rightfully ours, starting with the planet below us." The former human proclaimed.

Kevin's eyes widened behind his visor, _"Caladan has a population of a million…"_ he thought.

Kevin was broken out of his thoughts when Moses charged at them at astounding speed. Both he and Hilary dove in opposite directions, rolled into firing stances, and fired. But Moses swerved and evaded most of the shots, and those that did hit barely dented the armored body. Hilary switched to her M6P for better accuracy, and tried a new tactic. She landed half a dozen M225 Semi-Armor Piercing High Explosive rounds on the former scientist's emaciated body, but it merely made him laugh.

Unexpectedly, Moses spun around so fast he should have toppled over, and accelerated at an alarming speed toward Kevin, intending to run the Spartan down. Despite all his augmented speed and reflexes, he couldn't move out of the way in time. Then Hilary came out of nowhere and managed to tackle him out of harms way. However, Moses also fired a quartet of green glowing plasma bolts, two of them hitting Hilary, first taking down her shields and melting the front of her armor. Moses, on a roll, turned about at that impossible speed again, and thrust his claw through Hilary's torso.

"No!" Kevin cried, as he watched Hilary get impaled by Moses.

Moses gave his sinister laugh again as Hilary slid off his now bloody claw. Blood and hydrostatic fluid pooled around the fallen Spartan as Kevin looked in shock.

* * *

Justin hefted a M24 SSM missile launcher, the standard UNSC marine anti-vehicle weapon, with a four rocket capacity, and a lock-on feature. Tyche had warned them that larger and tougher creatures were appearing now as well, and Justin wanted his team to be prepared.

Across the room, Shiho attached a W/AV M7 G/GNR "Spartan Laser" on her back using the magnetic weapon holder strips built into the armor. The M7 was virtually identical to the M6, but with one key difference. It could be reloaded. Shiho took two extra energy cells with her and a BR56 HB SR as well. Christina grabbed the newest rendition of the M319 CQB individual grenade launcher, the marine version of a weapon that hadn't changed much since its adoption in 2263.

They were about to head out when the team bio on all of their HUD's flashed a warning. Hilary's pulse had flatlined, and her armor's readout indicated her suit had been breached and was critically damaged. All the Spartans froze in shock, their teammate was dead. Without a second thought, they rushed toward the testing chamber with renewed vigor, while keeping an eye on Kevin's skyrocketing pulse and blood pressure.

* * *

Dr. Malcolm Kent ran as fast as he could, which was not very fast since he did not keep fit. Right behind him, Lt. Alberto fired on a growing horde of their former co-workers. But there was too many for them to take on. As they neared the control room, their savior came in the form of four auto turrets lowering themselves from concealed hatches on the ceiling. Without further ado, they opened fire. Hundreds of 12.7x99mm armor piercing rounds cut down dozens of zombies. Against the six-barreled gatling turrets, they never stood a chance. When the door slid open, the two hurried inside. The door was made of solid titanium-A, and an energy shield layer popped on around the walls of the room for good measure. Nothing would get through; they were safe, for now.

* * *

Kevin dove out of the way as the deranged scientist tried to run him down again. But he didn't anticipate four precisely fired plasma bolts, aimed to hit him on all sides. With no other choice, Kevin had to dive forward and under the shots, and he rolled up just in time to get hit by Moses' tank body. The Spartan went flying, and slammed against a wall. An alarm informed Kevin that his suit's shields were depleted and he had internal bleeding, and numerous other life threatening injuries. None of them he would survive after a couple minutes. But it would only be seconds before Moses would finish him off. The arrival of four other Spartans however, put off his demise.

Justin and his team arrived just to see Kevin smash into the side of the testing chamber. Without hesitating, the Spartan team leader shouldered his rocket launcher and fired all four rockets in the tube at the grotesque mix of flesh and machine attacking his teammate. Beside him, the other Spartans fired their respective weapons. Under this barrage, Moses finally perished with an inhuman shriek, leaving only a melted and smoldering tank chassis. Shiho ran to Kevin's side, sliding the rest of the way when she was only a few meters away. But even a few seconds into her examination, it was obvious he was going to die. Destroying Moses only prolonged his life for no more than a few minutes. On the other side of the chamber, Virgil checked Hilary's corpse, and shook his head. Justin and Christina kept their weapons aimed at the still open portal, and wondered if anything else was going to come through.

"We need to find some way to shut it down." Virgil said, as he came over.

"We don't have any explosives, and even then, we aren't sure they'll work, it looks like its being generated from the other side." Christina replied.

Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking hard on what to do. Their answer came with Shiho, who was dragging Kevin's corpse over.

"We can set Kevin and Hilary's power plants to overload; the blast is enough to bury the chamber in rubble." Shiho said.

Justin nodded.

"It's the best we can do."

Christina handled the power plants, and timed it for 90 seconds. Then they all got out of the chamber as fast as possible. The compact fusion reactors powering their teammates MJOLNIR armor would also serve as their funeral pyre. Justin led the rest of his team down a side corridor despondently. Half an hour into this combat situation, and he had already lost a third of his team, things weren't looking good.

Their radios had been silent for a while now, but all of a sudden, they came to life with a crackle. It was Dr. Kent, the second in command of the project.

"_Wohlstand base, do you read me?"_

"_...Roger that, Dr. Kent, this is Colonel Stryker, how can we help you?"_

"_I am declaring general emergency codes Hydra and Bloody Arrow. Unknown hostiles have penetrated the facility from the other side of the teleportation portals, they're some sort of monsters, they can possess humans, and there are larger kinds of them. We've lost contact with all marine positions, and our A.I. has been hacked somehow."_

There was some muffled discussion from wherever Dr. Kent was broadcasting from, and then the security chief, Lt. Alberto's voice came over the com.

"_Hostiles are trying to get through lockdown to the hangar bay. When they possess humans, it looks like they retain their host's knowledge, just like the flood, we cannot allow them to leave Vermögen. I'm enacting containment protocol omega, over."_

Containment Protocol Omega, that was the order for self-destruction to prevent spread of biological threats, primarily the flood. Any second now, the nuclear generators powering the facility would meltdown and crack the moon in half.

The four Spartans waited anxiously, realizing that they would die in just a few minutes. But nothing happened. Justin frowned. Not that he wanted to get vaporized by a 150 megaton blast, but the explosion should have occurred by now. His answer came in the form of his radio again.

"_Dr. Kent, Lt. Alberto? What's going on over there?"_

"_Shit, we've been locked out of reactor control, we have to go there manually to detonate…Wohlstand, do you guys have any assets to destroy Vermögen?"_

"_Negative…"_

Justin felt this was the time to interrupt.

"_This is Spartan-D095; my team can go manually detonate the reactor."_

Colonel Stryker's surprised voice came over the com.

_"Spartan? Sit-rep."_

"_We've buried one of the portals in rubble, they're being generated by something on the other side. I've lost a third of my team, I have three others with me, I can confirm that most, if not all marine positions have been overrun. Reactor control is just five levels below us, we can do it." _Justin said.

"_Alright then Spartan, and good luck, I've relayed this message to the fleet, we have several ships inbound, Godspeed."_

The radio fell silent, and the rest of his team stared at him glumly through unpolarized faceplates.

"What?" Justin asked.

"You just volunteered us for a mission that, if successful, would result in our deaths." Shiho said in a peeved tone.

"Well, if we don't do this, more people than just us will die. We can't let these things escape out into the galaxy." Justin countered.

"Don't worry man, we understand, no better way to go then to save the galaxy from demons and body possessing flying skulls, right?" Virgil said.

"Right…"

Shiho slowly nodded while Christina gave a small smile.

The four Spartans moved cautiously to the stairwell on the other side of the floor they were on.

* * *

"Tyche, status report."

"_The possessed marines and researchers outside are relentless, they've already destroyed one turret with well placed fragmentation grenades, but for the moment, they have been repelled."_

"What about their network intrusions?"

"_I retain control of all doors and airlocks in the facility, as well as life support. It should be noted that the possessed humans do not appear to require oxygen to survive. I also maintain control of the defense mechanisms outside this room, as well as the ones guarding my mainframe. All other security measures have gone haywire, and do not recognize FoF tags. I've advised the Spartans of this fact."_

"Damn, that'll make it a lot harder then, what about the base scanners?

"_I have control of the base scanners in limited areas, I can track the Spartans progress through most of the base, and relay information back and forth, currently, they have traversed 550 meters west, and 2 levels down. They are in the main lobby engaging approximately 24 possessed security personnel, it would seem our foes are aware of their objective, and are actively opposing them. This suggests a coordinating central intelligence behind them."_

"Like the Gravemind? As if this couldn't get any worse, what are our options?"

"_Lt. Alberto, you and Dr. Kent would not survive for long outside this room, keep Wohlstand appraised and keep sending over all the data and records we have."_

The marine officer grumbled.

* * *

The loud report of Virgil's shotgun accompanied the zombified marine's chest blowing outwards. Behind him, Christina fired a grenade into the midst of a zombie fireteam, and blew them all back to hell. Justin fired his MA5D at enemy positions from behind a desk, and Shiho strafed enemy fire gracefully, while returning fire in the form of precise headshots to each zombified marine. Seconds later, the fight was over. The Spartans grimly policed weapons and ammunition off the torn up bodies of the former marines, also taking care to make sure they were all dead, a practice they had gained after a surprise attack from what they had believed to be a corpse.

It was time to move on, not that Justin was in a hurry to die, but there were too many unknown variables in this mission, and the sooner they finished, the better. Justin paused for a moment, waiting for his point man to get in formation, but then he realized for what seemed like the tenth time, that Kevin was gone. He shoved his feelings into a corner of his mind and lead the way. They had to make it to a service lift that would take them directly down to the floor where the reactor was.

While they moved, Justin's radio crackled again, signifying that Tyche or the other two survivors holed up in the Comm. Array room had information for them.

"_Eta team, seismic scans are detecting big activity down in reactor control, other scanners are down so we can't see what's going on, be careful."_

"Roger that." Justin replied emotionlessly.

"Something's going on, and I have a bad feeling about it…" Shiho said.

"Pfft, you always have a bad feeling, and nothing has ever come of it." Virgil replied.

Justin and Christina smirked, it was true, Shiho always had some sort of gut feeling, intuition if you will, but it had always been nothing, and had turned into an in-squad joke. At that moment, half a dozen bright orange circles and lightning signified enemies "spawning".

Virgil calmly strode up in front of one, waited for the surprised imp to appear before blowing it away with a single shotgun blast. Virgil proceeded to blow away another imp, while dodging the fireballs they shot from their hands. The rest of the squad finished off the rest.

"If that's all they got, this'll be a breeze." Virgil commented as the last imp disintegrated away.

"There were some bigger ones sighted, and chances are, they'll get sent after us, so let's just hurry." Justin said.

After a few minutes of uneventful travel, Eta team had reached the lift. The four bulky super soldiers barely managed to fit in the cramped service elevator, and there was an awkward moment when they tried to hit the button for the reactor control floor. They were getting nowhere quick, but thankfully, Tyche chose this moment to help.

"_I see your...predicament Eta team, I've started the lift for you. Please exercise extreme caution on level B15, I've lost all "eyes and ears" down there except for the reactor control center, good luck."_

Justin grinned with embarrassment, and tried to adjust his position futilely on one side of the tiny lift, uncomfortably close to Christina, who raised an eyebrow at his effort.

* * *

While Lt. Alberto kept his eyes on the base security scanners, Dr. Kent conversed hastily with Colonel Stryker.

"_In the event that the Spartans fail to achieve the objective, what are our options?"_ Dr. Kent asked.

"_There are four Spartans on the job; you don't think they can do it?"_ Stryker questioned with disbelief.

Dr. Kent shook his head, _"While the Spartans are unarguably our best shot at this, I've seen some of the life forms appearing here. It seems they can appear almost anywhere, in any number. They have unbelievable powers, with at least two types being able to conjure up fireballs out of thin air. They have intangible flying __**human**__ skulls capable of possessing people as well as disrupting electronic equipment! Even with Spartans, I'm not sure they will succeed."_

"_Gentlemen, it also appears that the flying skulls cannot penetrate energy shielding. This may be a defense against possession as the Spartans have shown in one case. It may also explain why these life forms haven't simply warped into this room, instead of throwing bodies at our defenses." _Tyche interjected, the AI giving his two-bits.

"_I'll take any bit of good news we can get. In the meantime, we've quarantined Vermögen. Good luck." _Stryker replied.

* * *

The doors to the lift slid open with a pneumatic hiss, and the four Spartans of Eta Team rushed out, taking care not to trip over each other. Justin tried his radio, but heard only static, they were on their own now. Justin led the way down what looked like an untouched service corridor, devoid of the blood and destruction of the upper levels of the facility. As he turned a corner, he felt a low rumbling through his armored boots. All of a sudden, the corridor _broke_ apart, leaving a couple large floor panels levitating over a stream of _lava_. Justin could see the severed piping in the titanium-A walls, leaking coolant into the lava below. The four Spartans stood in front of the spectacle, staring in blank shock.

Virgil broke the silence, "What. The. _Fuck._"

In his mind, Justin agreed.

"Uhhhhh…"

"We see it too Shiho…" Justin said.

Christina for her part said nothing. She just hopped to the nearest floating floor panel, momentarily scaring her teammates. The panel was solid however, and held the weight of Spartan in two tons of powered armor. After checking the panel with the tip of her foot, Christina hopped on each panel to the other side. She waved the rest of her team over impatiently.

Virgil shrugged, something notoriously difficult to do in the bulky MJOLNIR armor, and followed Christina over. After a moment, Justin and Shiho got past as well.

Justin entered into a darkened passage, only the dull red glow of the emergency floor lights working. His augmentations provided him with near perfect night vision however, so the darkness was not a problem. His motion tracker started showing dozens of contacts closing in on his position, and he gave hand signals for his team to watch out for possible threats. Just then, he heard a cry disturbingly similar to that of a newborn baby come from nearby. Out of nowhere, something flew right in Justin's face, a little something with monstrously large claws. Justin's shields flared at the impact, and out of reflex, he smashed the thing away with a gauntleted backhand. More of these things came out of the dark, and with growing horror, Justin realized they were human babies…with sharp claws for hands and what looked like the hind quarters of a fly complete with wings, proportionate in size to the rest of it. They had evil looking eyes and emitted distorted baby babbles. After swallowing the fear and unpleasantness at fighting such creatures, they were quite easy to dispatch. Some of them made surprisingly fast leaps at the Spartans, but with their augmented reflexes and strength, they evaded or destroyed them with ease. Virgil blew several away with blasts of his shotgun when they leapt at him while Justin fired a hail of rounds from his assault rifle, scything through dozens of these creatures (Cherubs in case you needed a name) in seconds. Christina fired a plasma type grenade into a mass of them, vaporizing them all. In just a minute, all of the horrifying creatures were gone. Silence reigned as the Spartans checked their dwindling ammunition supply, broken by Shiho, who said,

"Wouldn't want to run into any more of those things. That was a bit too disturbing for me…"

Justin silently agreed with the team scout, and wondered what else laid waiting for them. After ramming a new clip home in his assault rifle, the Spartan team leader continued down the passage, while stepping around the steaming pit created by Christina's grenade. They were passing by several storage rooms now, doors along a hallway leading directly to the reactor control room. Four new blips on Justin's motion tracker appeared, but rather than the crimson dots warning him of danger, they were bright yellow, indicating living friendly forces. There was literally no survivors in the base proper, so he decided to check it out. It was a slight detour, so Justin made the signal for stop, and indicated the side passage towards the friendly contacts. On his HUD, the three members of his team flashed their agreement lights, and followed him, while checking every possible hiding spot for enemies and keeping wary of an ambush. They reached a locked storage room, and his squad got on either side of the door. Justin keyed in his override code, and the door slid open…revealing a shotgun barrel mere inches from his face.

* * *

_Kind of a crappy cliffhanger to be honest. The original chapter was a bit longer, but I cut the rest out for the next chapter. Reviews make me happy, especially ones that give useful critique and tips, and a happy me=a better quality fanfic!_


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